Caring for the environment is everyone’s obligation, a task that we can do with many of our daily tasks and in which the green mortgage is of great help. If we spend a good part of our lives in our homes, its characteristics are fundamental when it comes to achieving savings and greater energy efficiency.
Although a large part of the saving of electric energy is defined by the content of our home, from LED lighting systems to low-consumption electrical appliances, the benefits of the home itself are equally or even more important.
As per SPV Mortgages, Some benefits that require investment and in which the conditions of the mortgage can become of great help.
What is a green mortgage? Characteristics
As its own name indicates, a green mortgage is a mortgage guarantee loan that differs from a normal mortgage in that it finances the purchase or rehabilitation of homes with environmental improvements.
These improvements, which, as we will see in the requirements, can cover different objectives, will achieve not only progress in reducing the environmental impact of the home but also long-term economic savings.
But in exchange for all this, it does require a greater investment at the time of buying or undertaking the project.
For all these reasons, it is important to have an adequate financial product with which to obtain the necessary funds and with the best conditions, such as a green mortgage.
Requirements
Although the environmental improvements of a home can be very extensive, the green mortgage currently focuses on two of them:
- Improvement of the energy rating of a home, with respect to its consumption.
- Assembly of electrical self-consumption facilities, generally photovoltaic panels, with which to achieve savings on the electricity bill.
The way to justify that these points are undertaken is different. While the installation of solar panels, is simple, you only have to present the budget for its assembly or commissioning, in energy efficiency it is different.
In this case, what is usually required is that you either buy a new or used home in the highest categories according to an energy certificate (A and in some cases B). It is also very common to use these mortgages to carry out improvement works when a second-hand home is purchased. In this case, it is necessary to compare the result of the energy certificate of the purchase, obligatory when this transaction is made, with another that is issued after the work.
You can achieve this energy improvement and reach level B or A in different ways such as:
- Improving the insulation of the walls, and external housing.
- Changing windows for others with better insulating properties.
- Improvement in heating and air conditioning systems, replacing, for example, diesel boilers with gas ones or installing underfloor heating or aerothermal energy.
- More efficient Domestic Hot Water (ACS) systems such as sealed boilers.
Advantages of a green mortgage
All these improvements have an economic extra cost that in many cases can be very important, especially if you do not have savings when hiring a mortgage.
Although there is a long-term economic incentive, beyond the environmental benefits, significant outlays must first be made.
For all these reasons, green mortgages differ from normal ones in offering economic advantages, which are generally:
- Lower interest rates, directly on fixed-rate mortgages or with lower spreads on variable-rate mortgages.
- Bonuses in commissions, especially in the opening, lower the initial expenses.
- Other financial advantages such as grace periods in which only interest is paid and capital is not returned, giving rise to lower instalments.
The objective with all this is that, in addition to achieving savings, consumers have incentives to undertake these improvements without involving such a high cost.
Therefore, financial institutions, through more attractive offers, are essential when it comes to marketing green mortgages and achieving these good improvements for buyers, but also globally and even for banks.
With all this, it is sought that financial institutions understand that the benefits are not only exclusive to customers. A green mortgage, with preferential financing conditions, also reduces the risk of defaulting banks :
- Directly, being cheaper than normal mortgages.
- Indirectly, since a family economy with lower energy costs is healthier.
To achieve this, they perform different steps:
- Definition of the aspects that make a mortgage can be defined as energy efficient.
- Control the initiatives at the country level with their respective conditions.
- Organise meetings in which experiences are exchanged.
In short, contracting a green mortgage is betting on long-term savings, collaborating in the fight against climate but also doing so with more appropriate conditions.
That is why it is so important to publicise the characteristics of green mortgages, their objectives, and their advantages.
